COLONIAL CONFERENCE

Hokitika Guardian, 1 July 1930, Page 5

COLONIAL CONFERENCE

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

WORK OF THE DEVELOPMENT

COMMITTEE

(Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, June 27. Mr J. H. Thomas, Secretary for the Dominions, addressed a plenary session of the Colonial Conference to-day. Mr Thomas referred to the 'euu/ks which lie had rttade in the House of Commons regarding the mistaken view that Britain was in the position of receiving benefits from tile oversea dominions and colonies ,hut was conferring nothing in return, He again emphasised the great contribution which in very difficult circumstances, the Old Country was making towards Empire development, an important instance of which was the colonial development fund. In the expenditure of that fund the Home Government looked to the colonial governments for advice and the lformulation of proposals, but he urged them to take the long view. So far as the Government were concerned they intended to put the widest possible interpretation on the terms colonial development. He felt sure that the colonial development fund would tend to relieve the economic position at Home, and also develop the prosperity of the colonial empire. Referring to the Colonial Development Advisory Committee, Mr Thomas on behalf of the Government, thanked Sir Basil Blackett, chairman of the committee, for the tremendous amount of work lie had done and was doing in this connection.

Sir Basil Blackett, on behalf of himself and the Colonial Development Advisory Committee, expressed his gratification at Mr Thomas’s observations and his pleasure at having an opportunity of meeting the representatives of, the .colonial administrations at the conference, as the committee wished to learn from them the needs of the colonial governments. He said that from August 1929 to June 25,1930, the cost of schemes submitted to the committee by colonial administrations was £6,560,000, of which it was expected that £2,500,000 would be expended in Britain. The assistance recommended by the committee towards those schemes amounted to £1,774,000 spread over five years. Those figures included two very important schemes in Africa, namely,' the Zanzibar bridge scheme, and that for the development of the Mamma iron ore deposits in Sierra Leone, together with the railway construction and harbour development involved.